KURDISH NEWS WEEKLY BRIEFING, 8 – 14 OCTOBER 2016

1. Hundreds of Syrian rebels join the pro-Kurdish SDF alliance14 October
2. Over 2,500 Arabs displaced by ISIS, hosted by Kurds in Syria’s Afrin3. Liberated from ISIS suppression, women of Manbij join security forces4. Police raids HDP and DBP buildings in Amed
5. Dozens of Kurdish politicians detained in Van – UPDATE6. Prosecutor objects to DBP co-chair’s release and demands his re-arrest7. Med Nûçe TV officials discuss press freedom in the Council of Europe8. Eutelsat stops the broadcast of Newroz TV as well9. Campaign for missing Kurdish politician winds up with a rare happy ending10. Destruction in Kurdish capital of south-east Turkey is dark mirror to Syria11. Turkey’s Kurds are in the crosshairs as government crackdown widens12. Amnesty: Yezidi survivors attempt suicide, world must act

OPINION, COMMENTARY, ANALYSIS1. “The Stone Building” and the Post Coup Erdoğan Crackdown2. İlham Ehmed: Turkey an obstacle in the liberation of Mosul – PART II3. ISIS emir Abdullah: Turks are the MVPs of ISIS4. A no-fly zone for Aleppo risks a war that could engulf us all5. Why a No-Fly Zone Will Not Solve the Crisis in Aleppo6. Turkey: EU Leaders Silent On AKP’s Crushing Of Democracy7. Flückiger: Turkey en route to a fascist state, there must be an intervention8. Russkies at the Doorstep

CAMPAIGNS, EVENTS1. Ocalan Demo on 9 October
2. Turkey: Release The PKK’s Abdullah Ocalan Now
3. Jailed Kurdish leader released Unite and Labour MP delighted
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NEWS1. Hundreds of Syrian rebels join the pro-Kurdish SDF alliance14 October/ARA NewsA Free Syrian Army (FSA) brigade joined the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) on Thursday. The SDF is an alliance of Kurdish, Arab, Assyrian and Armenian militias that have been fighting the Islamic State (ISIS) in northern Syria. In a press conference in Hasakah city, the Free Officers Union announced that they were deserting the FSA’s ranks and joining the SDF. Their representatives expressed a strong aversion to Islamism.http://aranews.net/2016/10/hundreds-syrian-rebels-join-kurdish-arab-alliance-sdf/

2. Over 2,500 Arabs displaced by ISIS, hosted by Kurds in Syria’s Afrin
14 October/ARA NewsThe Kurdish city of Afrin has received thousands of displaced civilians from villages near al-Bab city in Syria’s northern Aleppo Governorate. More than 2,500 Arab civilians fled their villages after Islamic State (ISIS) militants ordered residents to evacuate. ISIS has struggled to retain its positions north of al-Bab, against a coalition of rebels backed by Turkey.http://aranews.net/2016/10/over-2500-arabs-displaced-by-isis-from-al-bab-hosted-by-kurds-in-syrias-afrin/

3. Liberated from ISIS suppression, women of Manbij join security forces
13 October/ARA NewsZainab Ali was the first Arab woman to join the Asayish police in Syria’s northern Manbij city. Her unprecedented step is considered revolutionary in this conservative community. Ali says she joined the Asayish forces to fight local Arab traditions, which she believes would confine her to a single role: a wife kept indoors.http://aranews.net/2016/10/liberated-isis-suppression-women-manbij-join-armed-forces-protect-city/

4. Police raids HDP and DBP buildings in Amed
13 October/ANF NewsPolice raided the HDP and DBP buildings in the city center and districts of Amed last night. During the raids, police seized documents, books and party reports including the report on the months-long clashes in Sur district. During their raid on the HDP and DBP buildings in Amed’s Lice district, police officers broke the buildings’ doors and seized documents and books.http://anfenglish.com/kurdistan/police-raids-hdp-and-dbp-buildings-in-amed

5. Dozens of Kurdish politicians detained in Van – UPDATE
12 October/ANF NewsAKP government has accelerated the political genocide operations against Kurdish politicians across North Kurdistan.As many as 49 people who include the co-chairs of Democratic Regions’ Party (DBP) and Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) branches in all the districts of Van province have been taken into custody during an extensive detention operation as part of which numerous houses and DBP/HDP offices have been raided and searched in detail.http://anfenglish.com/kurdistan/dozens-of-kurdish-politicians-detained-in-van-update

6. Prosecutor objects to DBP co-chair’s release and demands his re-arrest
12 October/ANF NewsDiyarbakır 5th High Criminal Court Prosecutor has filed an objection to the release of DBP (Democratic Regions’ Party) co-chair Kamuran Yüksek who had been detained in May and released during first hearing on October 7. Yüksek had been detained on May 10 and arrested on the 13rd on alleged charges of “membership to an armed terrorist organisation”. The statements he had made to the press in the main Kurdish city Amed were cited as an evidence within the scope of the investigation launched against him by Diyarbakır Public Prosecutor’s Office.http://anfenglish.com/kurdistan/prosecutor-objects-to-dbp-co-chair-s-release-and-demands-his-re-arrest

7. Med Nûçe TV officials discuss press freedom in the Council of Europe
12 October/ANF NewsOfficials from Med Nûçe TV, which was closed recently due to AKP pressure, gave a presentation in the conference held in the Council of Europe titled “Press Freedom in Turkey” yesterday. Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) Group of the Unified European Left (UEL)Member HDP MP Ertuğrul Kürkçü gave the opening speech in the conference which higlighted AKP’s anti-press freedom practices and stated that France and Europe should not bow down to this.http://anfenglish.com/freedom-of-the-press/med-nuce-tv-officials-discuss-press-freedom-in-the-council-of-europe

9. Campaign for missing Kurdish politician winds up with a rare happy ending
11 October/Al MonitorOn Oct. 7, the Firat news agency ran an unexpected story: Kurdish politician Hursit Kulter was holding a press conference in the Iraqi city of Kirkuk, months after he went missing in Turkey’s mainly Kurdish southeast. Even the Kulter family was bewildered as they had lost hope he would ever turn up alive. Activists had mounted a vocal and unrelenting campaign of pressure on Ankara to explain the young politician’s disappearance, which had fueled fears that Turkey was returning to the 1990s, when arbitrary detentions and extrajudicial killings were almost a daily occurrence at the height of the Kurdish conflict in the southeast.http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2016/10/turkey-missing-kurdish-politician-hursit-kulter.html#ixzz4MuJDQJ4b

10. Destruction in Kurdish capital of south-east Turkey is dark mirror to Syria
10 October/The IndependentAll day and all night, the big white trucks roar along the muddy road inside the black, volcanic walls of Diyarbakir. They enter the old city empty and leave piled high with rubble. When I walk down the same narrow road after dusk, two massive bright searchlights switch themselves on. Despite the glare, I can see a crumpled house, a smashed roof. And then a policeman in a flak jacket holding an AK-47 steps into the light. “You can go no further,” he says to me in Turkish, bored, tired. He’s given this order a thousand times to the Kurds.http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/destruction-in-kurdish-capital-of-south-east-turkey-is-dark-mirror-to-syria-a7354161.html

OPINION, COMMENTARY, ANALYSIS1. “The Stone Building” and the Post Coup Erdoğan Crackdown
13 October/Counter PunchThis summer a colleague and friend Sevinç Türkkan asked me to help her with her translation of a work of fiction by the Turkish writer Aslı Erdoğan. The book’s title is The Stone Building—the stone building is a prison. In July and August Sevinç and I worked through her initial English translation (I can’t read Turkish and she only asked me to help with the English prose). But the more we worked, the more I became engrossed by what I was reading, a work of literature like nothing I had ever read.http://www.counterpunch.org/2016/10/13/the-stone-building-and-the-post-coup-erdogan-crackdown/

2. İlham Ehmed: Turkey an obstacle in the liberation of Mosul – PART II
13 October/ANF EnglishSyrian Democratic Council (MSD) Co-chair İlham Ehmed said the map of which power wants what in Syria isn’t totally clear yet. Lately, Syria has started heading towards uncertainty. This uncertainty is widening the divide between the US and Russia. The relationship and the talks between the two powers on Syria have ended since. Meanwhile, the Syrian Baath regime started to advance in Aleppo and Homs. Turkey’s invasion of Jarablus also continues to expand.http://anfenglish.com/features/ilham-ehmed-turkey-an-obstacle-in-the-liberation-of-mosul-part-ii

3. ISIS emir Abdullah: Turks are the MVPs of ISIS
13 October/ANF NewsISIS emir Ahmet Osman Abdullah, code name Ebu Omer Ceza, who surrendered to the YPG made striking confessions on Turkey-ISIS relations. ISIS emir Ahmet Osman Abdullah escaped from ISIS in 2015 and surrendered to the YPG and has been arrested for some 10 months. Ahmet Osman Abdullah spoke about why he joined ISIS, what he saw once he was there, the conflicts he experienced, the relationship between ISIS and the Turkish state and why he surrendered to the YPG.http://anfenglish.com/kurdistan/isis-emir-abdullah-turks-are-the-mvps-of-isis

4. A no-fly zone for Aleppo risks a war that could engulf us all
12 October/The GuardianMuch was made in this week’s Commons debate on Syria of the need for ano-fly zone over Aleppo. Given that the Syrian government and the Russians have a monopoly of air power over the city, the idea of denting or deterring it might seem attractive. Hillary Clinton also advocated such a zone in Sunday’s presidential TV debate.https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/oct/12/no-fly-zone-aleppo-war-russia-syria

5. Why a No-Fly Zone Will Not Solve the Crisis in Aleppo
13 October/Counter PunchThe proposal put forward to shoot down Russian and Syrian aircraft over Eastern Aleppo in a bid to end the bombardment of this part of the city is wholly unrealistic. The West is not going to risk a war against a nuclear power and its Syrian ally in order to help the 250,000 to 275,000 civilians trapped there. To pretend anything else is empty bombast detached from the realities on the ground. The danger of such wild schemes is that they divert attention from more realistic plans to save the besieged from further suffering and death.http://www.counterpunch.org/2016/10/13/why-a-no-fly-zone-will-not-solve-the-crisis-in-alepp/

7. Flückiger: Turkey en route to a fascist state, there must be an intervention
12 October/ANF NewsFlückiger mentioned the July 15 military coup attempt and said Erdoğan turned the coup attempt into an advantage for himself and started implementing the changes he wanted in the country. Flückiger underlined that the State of Emergency declared after the coup attempt served Erdoğan’s demands completely and that with the State of Emergency practice, Erdoğan increased his pressure on the people and all institutions every day.http://anfenglish.com/features/fluckiger-turkey-en-route-to-a-fascist-state-there-must-be-an-intervention

8. Russkies at the Doorstep
11 October/Counter PunchIn a year noted for crude political discourse, eagerly serialized in the mainstream media, the MSM are themselves bellowing anti-Russian rhetoric, conspiracy theory, and fear-mongering. Of the two “evil of two lessers” contenders, Trump is the one who regularly gets hammered, justifiably in the case of his anti-Muslim and other racist and sexist slurs, while Clinton gets a pass, even an A+, for her repeated verbal assaults on Russia and its president, even as she reeks of class hostility toward Trump supporters.http://www.counterpunch.org/2016/10/11/russkies-at-the-doorstep/

2. Turkey: Release The PKK’s Abdullah Ocalan Now
12 October/Morning StarSUNDAY October 9 marked the 18th anniversary of the expulsion of Abdullah Ocalan from Syria where he had been for the best part of 20 years. In 1998 Turkey was sabre rattling and openly threatening Syria to expel Ocalan and renounce its support for the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK). Tremendous political pressures were exerted on Damascus, which was beset by severe economic strains and the weakening of its relations with its traditional global ally Russia, which was deeply damaged politically and embroiled in its own destabilising financial crisis.https://www.morningstaronline.co.uk/a-f69b-Turkey-Release-the-PKKs-Abdullah-Ocalan-now

3. Jailed Kurdish leader released Unite and Labour MP delighted12 October/Unite LiveUnite the union and Labour front bench MP Kate Osamor were delighted to witness the release of jailed Kurdish political leader Kamuran Yüksek in Turkey on Saturday October 8.

Kamuran Yüksek was arrested two weeks after returning to Turkey from the UK after a meeting in the UK parliament hosted by Kate Osamor and organised and supported by Unite and the GMB union.

EMERGENCY APPEAL FOR AFRIN

Life in Afrin

Weekly News Briefing

Jeremy Corbyn issues statement of support for the National Demo

Message from Jeremy Corbyn to Kurdish national demonstration in London:
“I’m sorry not to be able to be with you today, but I send a message of solidarity with today’s demonstration, and with the Kurdish people, under sustained attack across the Middle East.
The conflict in Syria has been the trigger for an onslaught against the Kurdish people, who are defending their autonomy and their rights.
We are watching closely the alarming events that have been unfolding in Turkey in recent weeks, including the killing of civilians and destruction of Kurdish homes.
Any negotiated settlement of the Syrian conflict must include peace and justice for the Kurds, including in Turkey. And the Turkish government needs as a matter of urgency to restart the peace process with the Kurds and respect the rights of all its people.
We call for an end to repression of the Kurds and justice for the Kurdish people throughout the Middle East.”

Destruction and Repression in North Kurdistan

Freedom for Ocalan!

On the 19th anniversary of his kidnap and imprisonment by Turkey, we renew our call for Abdullah Ocalan to be freed as part of a peaceful solution to the Kurdish question.